Castro's Communism and the Elian Case is colliding with the US National
Interest

by Elias Seife

It has invaded every single Federal institution in the United States and it
has created a legal and moral crisis as never seen before; the case of a 6
year old boy fleeing Cuba on boat with 10 other people. His mother and
stepfather drowned in the odyssey.

Does the boy have any rights as an individual, in this case to political
asylum, or does the father have all the rights and is he the only one who can
speak for the child?

Is Cuba just another poor country or is Cuba a country that is enslaved by
its political system?

Is Communism a morally acceptable political system?

Communism, by definition, has been proven to oppress and deny individuals of
their universally accepted human rights.

Does the United States have the moral obligation to grant political asylum to
any person fleeing Communism? Of course!

Using as excuse the 1948 Neutrality Act, for the last 30 years the US has
protected Castro from external overthrow attempts, but should the US continue
doing so? Castro has blackmailed the US before, such was the case of the
Mariel boatlift. But nothing seems to compare to the current Elian case.

By looking at the Cuban Constitution, one knows that children do not belong
to their parents, they belong to the State. Fidel Castro has said that when
Elian returns to Cuba, the boy will be subjected to "psychiatrical
evaluations" to assess the level of influence that was exerted on him by
living in the US (a free society). Psychiatrical wards in Cuba are notorious
for "reprogramming" their political opponents. Such has been the practice in
many communist countries including North Vietnam when they tried to
"reprogram" US Prisoners of War.

True that Castro has proven to be an effective leader, and has not posed a
military threat to the US in quite some time. True that Castro has exported
his Communist revolution to many countries in Latin America and has created
great wealth to the US in the form of capital flight. When Castro's communism
has reached other countries what has constantly happened is that the educated
and wealthy citizens are the first to be granted political asylum and move to
the US along with their resources; the Cuban, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan
communities are prime examples. But the US protection of Castro has gone to
far and now more and more people seeking political asylum are not the upper
class. People from all classes are seeking to come to the "land of the free".
Many of these people have become financial burdens to the US Social Services.

Granted, the US support for Fidel Castro has created unprecedented benefits
to our country. But the side-effects are now becoming very dangerous to our
National Interest. Illegal immigration and political asylum cases are at
an all-time high. Castro and Communism has to go. We should now be promoting
democracy and economic recovery for Latin America so that their citizens
become less inclined to come to the US for economic and political reasons.

Bottomline is that if Cuba were not a Communist country there would have
never been a Elian Gonzales case in the US. Elian would be happy living in
Cuba; a free and democratic country. But now..., we are paying the price
of protecting Fidel Castro for so long.